West Germany's spy scandal hit directly at Chancellor Helmut Kohl's office Tuesday when the government said a secretary and her husband had defected to East Germany. A government statement said Herta-Astrid Willner, 45, and her husband, Herbert, 59, failed to report for work Monday after a vacation in Spain. They had not been seen at their Spanish hotel for the last 10 days. The federal prosecutor's office immediately opened an investigation on suspicion of spying. Axel Wernitz,...

* Former French president meets Merkel for over hour * Sarkozy hails Franco-German leadership in euro crisis * Says those who are "scared to lead" not doing their job By Noah Barkin BERLIN, Feb 28 (Reuters) - In his first major speech since losing the French presidency in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy weighed in on euro zone integration, the Ukraine conflict and the risks of weak leadership in Europe to an adoring crowd of fellow conservatives in Berlin. Despite...

(Reuters) - Documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden show that Britain's surveillance agency is operating a network of "electronic spy posts" from within a stone's throw of the Bundestag and German chancellor's office, the Independent reported. NSA documents, in conjunction with aerial photographs and information about past spying activities in Germany, suggest that Britain is operating its own covert listening station...

(Reuters) - Documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden show that Britain's surveillance agency is operating a network of "electronic spy posts" from within a stone's throw of the Bundestag and German chancellor's office, the Independent reported. NSA documents, in conjunction with aerial photographs and information about past spying activities in Germany, suggest that Britain is operating its own covert listening station...

A delegation of Sinti and Roma gypsies who survived the Holocaust on Wednesday petitioned the German government for compensation equal to that received by other Holocaust victims. "There can be no differentiation made between groups of people that were destroyed during the Holocaust," Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of German Sintis and Romas, told journalists before a meeting with government officials. The delegation included some of the 200 gypsies still...

BERLIN (Reuters) - European leaders promised on Wednesday to step up the fight against soaring youth unemployment, but offered no new solutions or money at a meeting critics derided as a "show summit" to soften Angela Merkel's image ahead of a German election. The chancellor, whose insistence on spending cuts in return for aid during the euro crisis has made her a target of anger in recession-hit southern Europe, hosted about 20 of her EU counterparts a week after the bloc agreed to...

BERLIN (Reuters) - European leaders promised on Wednesday to step up the fight against soaring youth unemployment, but offered no new solutions or money at a meeting critics derided as a "show summit" to soften Angela Merkel's image ahead of a German election. The chancellor, whose insistence on spending cuts in return for aid during the euro crisis has made her a target of anger in recession-hit southern Europe, hosted about 20 of her EU counterparts a week after the bloc agreed to...

A delegation of Sinti and Roma gypsies who survived the Holocaust on Wednesday petitioned the German government for compensation equal to that received by other Holocaust victims. "There can be no differentiation made between groups of people that were destroyed during the Holocaust," Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of German Sintis and Romas, told journalists before a meeting with government officials. The delegation included some of the 200 gypsies still...

* Former French president meets Merkel for over hour * Sarkozy hails Franco-German leadership in euro crisis * Says those who are "scared to lead" not doing their job By Noah Barkin BERLIN, Feb 28 (Reuters) - In his first major speech since losing the French presidency in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy weighed in on euro zone integration, the Ukraine conflict and the risks of weak leadership in Europe to an adoring crowd of fellow conservatives in Berlin. Despite...

By Dennis L. Breo, Copyright 1985, American Medical Association. Adapted by permission from American Medical News | October 13, 1985

The order, Schenck recalled, came at 3 a.m. April 30, 1945. Ernst Gunther Schenck was one of two surgeons who had performed 350 operations on wounded German soldiers and civilians in a Berlin bunker during the previous seven days. He had just thrown himself on a cot, hoping to get a little sleep, when guards marched into the operating room of the bunker, which lay beneath the German Reich's new Chancellery (the equivalent of the White House). The soldiers beckoned Schenck, Dr. Werner Haase and two nurses...

By Dennis L. Breo, Copyright 1985, American Medical Association. Adapted by permission from American Medical News | October 13, 1985

The order, Schenck recalled, came at 3 a.m. April 30, 1945. Ernst Gunther Schenck was one of two surgeons who had performed 350 operations on wounded German soldiers and civilians in a Berlin bunker during the previous seven days. He had just thrown himself on a cot, hoping to get a little sleep, when guards marched into the operating room of the bunker, which lay beneath the German Reich's new Chancellery (the equivalent of the White House). The soldiers beckoned Schenck, Dr. Werner Haase and two nurses...

West Germany's spy scandal hit directly at Chancellor Helmut Kohl's office Tuesday when the government said a secretary and her husband had defected to East Germany. A government statement said Herta-Astrid Willner, 45, and her husband, Herbert, 59, failed to report for work Monday after a vacation in Spain. They had not been seen at their Spanish hotel for the last 10 days. The federal prosecutor's office immediately opened an investigation on suspicion of spying. Axel Wernitz,...

Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl acknowledged Wednesday that he accepted free flights from a media tycoon after leaving office, but he denied the trips were a payback for political favors. Coming in the midst of a campaign funding scandal centered on Kohl, his admission highlighted the cozy ties between German politicians and business that critics view as a root of the problem. Kohl's spokesman Michael Roik said the former chancellor accepted six free flights last year on a plane owned...

Although Adolf Hitler has been dead for more than 50 years, speculation about what happened to his body crops up over and over again. The main reason is that the Soviets, who captured Berlin in May 1945, didn't tell the whole story of what they found in and under the Reich Chancellery in Berlin--and even circulated a few red herrings. A new book, "Hitler's End: Legends and Documents," published in Germany, assesses all the evidence, some of which has become available only since the end of...